Should you put a disclaimer on your re-tweets (or on your Twitter profile) that your retweeting does not necessarily mean your endorsement of the content of the message so distributed?

Here is an article suggesting that disclaimers are not a bad idea. Associated Press has recently warned its journalists about this, and suggested that a mere disclaimer may not be enough. The article goes into blogger endorsements under the recent FTC policy on that topic too.

Can readers of your retweet figure out when your ‘no comment’ is an ironic dismissal of the content, rather than a neutral retransmission? Would . . . [more]

CALL/ACBD’s 50th annual conference is only weeks away. The CPC, our volunteers and the CALL Executive are looking forward to welcoming you to Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, and to the many events we have planned. I’ve already raved about the program and the social events. This conference also offers a few innovations which I hope you will enjoy.

CALL/ACBD launched a new website earlier this year, and the 2012 CPC was the first group to use the new conference templates. Feedback on its usability and structure would be very welcome, and will go into our report to the Executive and . . . [more]

To have a country governed by the rule of law and not the rule of man requires that the law be known. As few communication networks are as efficient for disseminating information as social media networks, it should not be that surprising that Twitter, Facebook and other networks can very effectively serve that objective.

Twitter and Facebook will not and should not supplant the role of government and the courts to make the law known, but even the law makers themselves can and are making increasing use of social media to augment their efforts.

#TellVicEverything

Before adopting too pious a . . . [more]

We may not be the most wealthy nation in the world, or have the most powerful military. But when it comes to the legal influence of our constitution on other countries, it seems that Canada tops the list.

This Tuesday we celebrate the Charter’s 30th anniversary, and there is plenty to rejoice about. The New York University Law Review is publishing an article in their upcoming June issue which mathematically calculates the relative global influence of the constitutions of different countries, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms surpasses even our American neighbours. The finding is so surprising in some . . . [more]

Seems the US DoJ thinks so. If you’ve ever wondered how publishers can charge more for an ebook that for a print version, this is part of the answer. Here is a good roundup of recent coverage. With three of five defendants already having settled, the interest seems to have turned from the question of whether there is price fixing, to the rationale: what strategies are open to publishers in the face of Amazon’s stranglehold on distribution? The obvious answer, as an alternative to breaking the law, is to abandon print-based business models, and pull a Louis CK. . . . [more]

This weekend near midnight on Saturday, will mark 100 years since the unsinkable ocean liner hit an iceburg on its maiden voyage and sank; which around these parts is a big deal. The magnitude of the event was so great that it resonates 100 years later. This event has entered our popular conciousness as it is common to hear of something that did not go well, that it was a disaster of “titanic proportions”; in a way the sinking of the Titanic has become the standard by which disasters are measured. Have you ever felt that you were “arranging . . . [more]

I’m having that deja blog feeling, but even if this app has been featured on Slaw before, it can’t hurt to bring it around again. I’m talking about a simple little time waster called Kick Ass. It exists as an iOS app, but you might find it more useful in its bookmarklet form, because the simple point of the “game” is to destroy websites, element by element.

You find yourself on a website that needs some… adjustment. Perhaps it’s an ad, perhaps it’s an irritating blog post or — hard to imagine — a headshot that just doesn’t . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

With the acquisition of Canada Law Book, Carswell has acquired a handful of publications that are similar to its own publications and that have been marketed as alternatives to each other. A few of them are best sellers and significantly strengthen Carswell’s overall position in the market for legal information. However, some of them could become a future concern for Carswell if they continue to be published and marketed as they have been in the past.

Competition between two of them, Martin’s Criminal Code and Tremeear’s Criminal Code, has led them to become virtual clones of each other. How . . . [more]

The Australian Attorney General has recently published a discussion document “to explore the scope for reforming Australian contract law”.

The document asks for comments on whether and how contract law impairs economic activity within Australia and separately for international economic activity. Australia’s contract law is basically the English Sale of Goods Act and common law, of course with legislative changes and the contributions of Australian courts. Australia is a member state of the Convention on the International Sale of Goods.

The consultation document starts off well, in my view, with this statement: “Our legal system is a form of infrastructure . . . [more]

I hate puppets and you should too. Here’s why:

Puppets are silly. Puppets are trivial little distractions, designed to amuse. In short, puppets are for child’s play. Nothing terribly vile there, but such things are the antithesis of what our legal system is about – important, frequently life-altering matters as well as critical issues of public policy. And because the legal system lags behind the public’s expectation of transparency, puppets are now being used to showcase the law. I kid you not.

The case that gives rise to my screed originates out of Ohio. According to a recent Wall Street . . . [more]